Wheel repair/general LBS labour rates?

Depends on the state of the wheel, one spoke broken but what caused it to break, did you continue to ride it etc

For a simple spoke change plus wheel true on a rim that was undamaged and had no over stressed other spokes we'd charge £20 labour plus £2 for the spoke (if it was plain guage j bend, aero or weird spokes cost more.

If the wheel is saveable but needs a complete detention/retention it'd be around £40.

In all cases we'd call you, explain the issues etc before going ahead, which your LBS has done. They must have said the exact issue involved?

Hi,

Broke half way through school run, literally just pinged as I was coasting. Rode half a mile on the road after that. LBS asked me if I had mucked around with other spokes and tried to straighten it myself which I hadn’t. The tone indicated that they believed they’d never seen a wheel like it, what I can is that visually and ride feel I wouldn’t say it was miles out (wish I’d taken a closer view/spin of it now before handing it over).

Your numbers make sense and I think that’s what has thrown me. I think I will have to disappoint the kids this weekend and argue with the shop on this 1.

I'd be wanting more of an explanation than

the whole wheel is screwed

Wiggle have agreed for me to get the spoke replaced at LBS which I figured was very nice of them.

Probably best asking Wiggle how much they'd reimburse you first.

Original number from shop when I phoned them was about £40 which Wiggle signed off.

Shop then called later with the new price which Wiggle are now questioning.

Why are you doing the chasing?

Ask Wiggle to sort out the repair? It is after all Wiggles problem not yours.

rear wheel on my year old Vitus snapped a spoke this week. WTB i25/Vitus build. Wiggle have agreed for me to get the spoke replaced at LBS which I figured was very nice of them.

I'd say that was very, very nice of them. Above and beyond really.

I’d be wanting more of an explanation than

the whole wheel is screwed

This +1. How bad is it?
I had a spoke go last week on my road bike which resulted in the paint getting rubbed off one chainstay (I thought it was the de-adjusted brake still rubbing, oops) one spoke and a spoke key and the wheel is fine.
A wheel can "pringle" but that usually isn't permanent IME, just back the tension off on each spoke and then true and re-tension

£40 to replace a spoke, that was a clue about your LBS

£60 sounds like a full rebuild and replacement of all spokes....

A rebuild with new spokes would be a lot more than £60. Spokes are £2 each for traditional J-bends.

Tonyf1, doing the chasing in an attempt to get sorted in time to take my boys out tomorrow. Not often the stars align that I can get out with them so to have this issue now is just really bad timing.

Scotroutes, agree it’s very nice of them but now feel I’m between the proverbial rock and hard place. Had I broke the wheel doing something silly I would put my hands up and deal with it, but I absolutely don’t ride aggressively in anyway and the failure was whilst coasting along a road at 10mph. The LBS’ updated appraisal of the wheel being inherently built wrong is why I’m leaning back on Wiggle, but I can’t say for sure which end is in the wrong in terms of opinion.

Broke half way through school run, literally just pinged as I was coasting. Rode half a mile on the road after that.

I broke a rear spoke on day two of a 3 week. Tour. Trued it a bit and rode the rest of the tour like that. It was fine 😁 you're unlikely to have damaged the wheel by riding it.

Replacing a pinged spoke and trueing it is literally a 5-10 minute job. Maybe taking the cassette off adds a bit.

I'd get another opinion. Well actually I'd do it myself, but that's me.

The LBS’ updated appraisal of the wheel being inherently built wrong

Unlikely, as it's lasted a year. Sounds to me like they can't be arsed, or want to up the money on the job.

I had a wheel once that arrived without any of the spokes properly tensioned. I knew nothing about bike mechanicals at the time. First time I went off a kerb it was knocked way out of true and took a lot of time to correct. That said, if yours was similar I'd expect it to have imploded much earlier

Sounds to me like they can’t be arsed, or want to up the money on the job.

This was my impression too.

Is the wheel massively pringled? What does it look like when you spin it in the frame- how out of true is it?

The LBS’ updated appraisal of the wheel being inherently built wrong is why I’m leaning back on Wiggle, but I can’t say for sure which end is in the wrong in terms of opinion

My non-legal thought is that Wiggle is being decent about this and that you should get a second opinion

If you want to go riding then pop into the shop and get the wheel back, pick up a replacement spoke while you are there. Fit the spoke, go riding, then drop the wheel into another shop for a proper truing on Monday at Wiggle's expense.

A snapped spoke on a year old bike I'd not be going back to the seller anyway? Maybe I should?

I did go back to Hunt after a similar time period due to the rear rim cracking around most of the spoke holes, but that seems a bit different to me.

Hunt sent a new rim and a LBS rebuilt it on the existing hub with a few spokes replaced for around £60 which Hunt also covered. I'd say get a second opinion and that price is for a full rebuild.

Are you really not in a position to replace 1 spoke and true, or not got a mate who could? The only PITA bit is removing a disc and cassette if it a rear. Last time I had to it cost less than £2 for a spoke from the LBS and no time really.

It’s it easy for you to walk into the shop and ask you to show you what’s up?

Spokes are £2 each for traditional J-bends.

Maybe if you buy one at a time (and even then, £2 is still expensive) but a full wheels worth of good quality spokes will normally come in at less than £1 per spoke including nipple

Maybe if you buy one at a time (and even then, £2 is still expensive) but a full wheels worth of good quality spokes will normally come in at less than £1 per spoke including nipple

Indeed. I just bought 32 plain gauge spokes for £18 (as a consumer not trade) so that is 56p each.

I've seen some awful wheels on brand new bikes, especially cheaper ones. Spoke tensions all over the place. It'll look ok but will cause constant problems.

The wtb i25/vitus build you've mentioned isn't an expensive wheel build.

I'm guessing the shop have discovered your wheels is bit rubbish. Yes it's only one spoke to you but they will be wanting to do a proper job but can't as the tensions are mismatched so they are wanting to start again with it

You could just put a spoke in and hope for the best but I'd put money on constant spoke breakages.

If they did this you'd most likely be back next week with another snapped spoke expecting them to fix it.

I very much doubt they are trying to con you.

A rebuild with new spokes would be a lot more than £60. Spokes are £2 each for traditional J-bends.

My lbs charged me £140 for two wheels builds, with dB spokes and brass nipples 🤷‍♂️ so £70 a wheel, £60 sounds like cheaper spokes or reusing nipples.

I just bought 32 plain gauge spokes for £18 (as a consumer not trade) so that is 56p each.

I used to get double butted DT, WheelSmith or Sapim for less than that. Usually buying by the box though (was building a handful of sets a wheels a month), still got about 2000 spokes of various lengths in the workshop and haven't built a wheel in 3 years!

TBH 40 quid to change a spoke is a bit much, unless it needs a new nipple and you've left the tyre (tubeless?) on and it's drive side...
And I'd not be discarding the shops opinion quite so quickly, the Vitus wheels were probably built in a far Eastern sweatshop by 12 year olds and may well be utterly shit. Mislaced and mistensioned wheels can last quite a while. Until a spoke snaps.

"5 to 10 min job" 🤣🤣🤣
rear wheel, cassette and disc off, tyre off, rim tpe (more of a ass if tubeless) measure/figure out correct spoke length, fit spoke, tension, check rest of spoke tension, adjust, refit tape/tyre set up tubeless, final check of tensions (they go down when tyre is on and inflated) fit cassette and disc, fit to bike check gears brakes work/don't rub.
yeap 5 -10 min job.....

like above really get more details on why they think the wheel is that bad?
Might not just be tension are all over the place, spoke damage (if chain got between cass and wheel) rim could be daked, spoke hole or dent in rim, or even the bearing could be worn/feeling rough

Hmm, spokes do go, although I've not had any go in a long time. I'd have just grabed a few spokes and replace and trued the wheel (something I can do as I've built a fair few wheels).

My mate broke two spokes on a ride recently, badly enough the wheel wouldn't turn. I had to ride back to his house, grab my car then drive back to collect him. He then whizzed off to local shop, came back with some spokes, replace them, then I did the final true with the wheel on the bike (he didnt have a jig).

I'd be questioning what they'd said, and just grabbing some spare spokes.

“5 to 10 min job” 🤣🤣🤣

@MTB-Rob, yes, for me at hone it is. What's your point?

I snapped a rear spoke on my Krampus a few weeks ago...
Bike on stand, wheel out, cassette off, selected a spare from my stash, dropped it in, and did it up into the nipple that was already in the rim.
Barely needed a true, just a quick tension of the spokes either side. I'd say 10 minutes all in all.

Not sure why you'd want or need to take the tyre off to replace one spoke?

Maybe you're faffing about too much?

Well, the plot has not so much thickened, it has more come to a complete halt and I’m rather at a loss.

Went to shop to get details to give to Wiggle and upon putting the wheel in a trying stand it has a side to side swing of about 2 inches! Now, I KNOW it wasn’t like that when on the bike (the wheel would not have turned in the frame) and I can say with great confidence that it was not like that when I handed it in (I would’ve seen that) BUT as I don’t have a picture of it as I handed it in there’s not much I can do other than accuse a shop of jumping on the wheel. I removed wheel from bike, removed tyre basically by hand and put the wheel in the car.

Having seen the wheel in person again I’m truly stumped as to what the hell has happened. Barring going to war with LBS it kinda feels like this is a chalk it up to experience thing and know to take pictures of stuff before I hand it over.

Right, budget wheel sets, talk to me…

removed wheel from bike, removed tyre basically by hand

Taking the tyre off can change the spoke tension, as having the tyre fitted compresses the wheel radially. BUT I doubt it would have that much effect.
Sounds like someone at the shop has tried truing it and buggered it up.

Where are you, and is it 29" or 27.5". I have a spare set of 27.5 i25 rims on Novatec hubs you could have for beer money.

I’m running 29, but thank you for the offer.

It's possibly too much spoke tension, add a bit too much tension to a straight/lightly buckled wheel and it can go out of shape big style. Buy a spoke key and back every spoke off half a turn and it should come back to it's lightly buckled state, repeat if needed.
WTB i25 should be a strong rim and is worth either having a go at replacing the spoke and truing it yourself or give it to someone else. Youtube is your friend

Tonyf1, doing the chasing in an attempt to get sorted in time to take my boys out tomorrow. Not often the stars align that I can get out with them so to have this issue now is just really bad timing.

Totally sympathise and never a good time to be bikeless.

Point is they aren’t taking responsibility to fix the problem when the cost went up. They could and should take the lead and phone the shop to find out the issue and / or arrange another shop given they need to get a resolution.

Whether fix is £1 or £100 shouldn’t be your problem. Wiggle have made it your problem in that you could have been out riding but Wiggle won’t pay.

Honestly I would not expect a bike shop to fix a wheel after a year of use. The only reason that they should have to is if it were faulty when supplied. Some faults could take a while to show up, but after a year it'd be a tough thing to prove that you haven't hit any potholes hard or somesuch.

My interpretation would be that Wiggle initially offered to suck up a small cost for the goodwill and because, frankly, the admin cost of arguing about it would cost more than a replacement spoke.

However, now that it's looking to them more like a costly trashed wheel, they're understandably less keen to just pay out. You may well just be super unlucky, but every bike shop under the sun has their share of "just riding along" customer stories, and Wiggle don't know you from Adam, so they could entirely justifiably say "If you have good reason to believe / evidence to suggest that this wheel was faulty when supplied then let's talk, but otherwise we're going to assume that it's failed through use."

I'd be chalking this up to "bike bits die from time to time" and just figuring out the best way to fix it, at your own expense.

I'm not saying the LBS are blameless but this sounds very much like not wishing to inherit issues with an old OEM wheel that might not be in best shape.

I remember replacing a spoke on a cycle tourist's wheel who came in to the shop. Dropping the spoke in and re-tensioning to get the rim back to true resulted in another spoke snapping before I'd even got to tension. Thankfully he knew enough to suspect that the whole wheel was no longer trustworthy so purchased a new wheel...

For those saying 5-10 mins, it took my local wheelbuilder 20 mins just to get the tyre off mine when I snapped a spoke - thick Michelin Wild Enduro and an insert 🙂

Then add in having to retape the rim and reset the tyre plus add in fluid etc...

Sounds a bit odd. With low spoke count wheels like a 24 spike road wheel one spoke snapping can make it go wildly wonky. 32 spoke mtb wheel barely moved when one of mine snapped - managed to ride out the few hours with the loose spoke zip tied to another one and fixed when home.

Not a 5-10 min job even when the original nipple stayed put by the time bike is in Stan’s / cassette off / rotor off / new spoke fitted and loosely tensioned up then wheel in truing stand to get fully tensioned and straight. Realistically more like 20 mins.

With your wheel that sounds wildly buckled and wonder if the rim has failed in some way - sounds odd if it’s been fine until now.

Personally I’d back all the spoke tension off and see how it looks - fit the new spoke and then see if you can get it relatively even tensioned and straight. If not that’s a new rim job.

Why is everyone taking tyres off to replace a spoke? 😆 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, I was just pointing out it's not a massive job. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, who cares 😁

A full wheel rebuild though, especially on an older rim that may or may not be toast. How long's your piece of string?

From scratch, with all new bits, and no-one bothering me, I can do a pair of wheels in 1 1/2 hours. Not the fastest, but then I'm not doing it every day.

Why is everyone taking tyres off to replace a spoke? 😆 🤷‍♂️

Probably as they've lost the nipple in the rim? That's what's happened to me the last couple of times when it's snapped at the nipple.

...or because spoke nipples on an OEM wheel, even on reasonably priced bikes, can be made of cheese?

I'll reuse decent spokes and nipples but would be very wary of re-using OEM spoke nipples unless I KNEW they were good quality.

Right, budget wheel sets

Back to square one there, buy something decent

Probably as they’ve lost the nipple in the rim?

Yeah, fair point ☺️
The last couple I've broken went at the hub, which makes life easier.

OP - re. new wheels, go for the best you can afford....I rate Hope hubs and Stans rims.
I also have a set of Stans Flow MK3 wheels, and they've been faultless for 2 years.

Rocketdog, let me rephrase, “value” wheel set. I do have to try and budget so there will be some compromise unfortunately.

As to why the hell I’d remove a tyre for them to do a spoke, it snapped at the thread so old nipple is blocked.

Any experience here of Silt wheels? The Scribe (road version) of the brand seems to do well.